In Mary, man (and woman) is married to God.
The male and the female unite in one person
in an interior marriage and the new human is born.
This is the mystery which has to be accomplished in us.
Every man and woman has to undergo this virgin birth,
to be married to God.
Father Bede Griffiths
This final week of the Thirty Days of Mary
I firstly invite you to enter the stillness;
daily, over and over again.
It is our challenge, our birth right,
our Soul’s deepest yearning,
to come face to face with God within :
to see the face of God.
Beyond our physical and psychic being,
we have to discover our spiritual being,
our eternal ground,
and there the mystery of love is fulfilled.
Some may come to this interior marriage
by way of exterior marriage, others
are called by the way of virginity,
but all alike have to experience the virgin birth,
the marriage with God,
before they can reach maturity.
Father Bede Griffiths
Then, secondly I invite you to invite her beauty into
your life.
She is always with us, within us, within everything.
There is nowhere that she is not.
There is no separation between her and yourself.
There is no separation : only rivers
seemingly crossing and intertwining, only
to become One in the stillness.
Beauty is a powerful path to realising Oneness.
Oneness already Is. No need to look for it
or to hunt it or to try and capture it in a jar
like some fairy dust.
You merely have to become aware of Oneness.
And beauty is one of her many Gates into Oneness.
What is essential is to keep the heart always
open to beauty, for she is beauty – Father Bede Griffiths
Our age is so harsh and brutal; it is therefor
of great sacred wholiness to create her beauty
everywhere : a healing space for the torn mind and
heart. Seeing her beauty awakens the lover of life
within us and her great creativity comes to play
and the poet and artist is born.
So for this final week, set out to create a sacred
environment for yourself, at home and at work.
It does not have to be complicated – it can be
very simple. Create a small (or not so small)
altar to the Mother; find time to walk in nature;
knit a prayer shawl; put a fresh rose next to your bed.
Offer her your first thoughts of the day
and the last thoughts before falling asleep.
Offer her your meal, remembering
‘I eat and I am eaten’
Light a stick of incense,
burn rose oil and allow the perfume
to permeate your mind.
Meditate on what brings you into her presence
and make time to regularly undertake those practises.
Make your home a sacred temple to her.
A place where love is shared and given
through the daily tasks of living
and soon the ordinary will become the sacred
and you will see her presence in everyone
and everything
blessings to you
Hettienne
Ave Maria
